[pgeorgi]

The Energiewende will make natural gas prohibitive over time.

That pipeline will be profitable, but I don't see it as a strategic factor (except for Ukraine who can't exert pressure on Russia by withholding deliveries to Western Europe).

On the other hand, building such a "firewall" will also be useful if the US chooses to exert more pressure like that, for example over the EU defense fund not planning to prop up the US military-industrial complex.

The USA became a much less gentle bully on the world stage in the last couple years (predating Trump, so it's not just about him, although his policy making probably accelerates it as well as the international response)

[jplayer01]

> The Energiewende will make natural gas prohibitive over time.

The Energiewende is laughable in its ambitions though, especially on top of wanting to implement a project like this. Germany has an issue in not being serious about tackling climate change - this is just another example of it.

I'm all for the EU unifying against the US's bullying, but this is something that should've been tackled when the US was undermining the Iran deal over nothing. But suddenly this project has motivated German politicians to push for unity? Really?

[pgeorgi]

> But suddenly this project has motivated German politicians to push for unity? Really?

The article was copied to reddit (see link somewhere else in this discussion): The ideas that were floated on twitter (of all places! this is far from official) extend on the Iran anti-embargo trade vehicle, which so far wasn't successful.

The issue with the trade vehicle is that it works better the larger its scope, so propping this up over _yet_ another example of US sanctions (this time hitting the EU more directly) also helps the Iran case.